More type, yummy, yummy

How gorgeous is this logo?

Launched just yesterday, Typedia is a wiki-type (sorry for that) site that allows registered users to log in and classify and edit fonts while educating other users. From the about page:

We love type, and we have a burning desire to learn as much as possible about typefaces: where they come from, who made them, and why they look the way they do. We want everyone to be able to share in that rich knowledge and enjoy the art and artists of type design. Over time, we think Typedia could grow into a great educational resource for people to learn about their favorite typefaces and discover new ones.

But let's get back to that delicious logo. Designed by John Langdon (you might know him as the fancy pants who designed all those Angels & Demons/DaVinci Code ambigrams), there is a mighty blog post about how this logo came to be. OK, I'm a type geek, I'll admit it, but Oh. My. God.

There's the initial "brief." The sketches. The feedback. More sketches. If you have any curiosities at all about how logos are created, I highly suggest reading this.

Amazing. Amazing logo, amazing type, amazing story.

Art & Copy

"I think creativity can solve anything--ANYTHING!"

I can't WAIT to see this movie. Check out the site here. Or follow Art & Copy on Twitter here.

In Italia

Identity designer and illustrator Felix Sockwell took a 2 week class in Italy, and shares his sketchbooks with us:





A-ma-zing. Be sure to check out the rest of this peek inside his mind over on his blog. Makes me long for a 2 week trip to Italy, blank sketchbooks in hand... (also? Said trip will be financed by some bazillionaire so I can just draw and shoe shop, all. day. long.)

Let's hope it's a Monday Puzzle

Found via Twitter last week, a building--in the Ukraine--that's painted to look like a crossword puzzle:



Which is pretty cool in and of itself; I mean, you have this big white wall, right? Why not do something cool with it?

But wait, there's more:

Questions for the puzzle can be found in various locations around the city, on monuments, theaters, fountains, etc. Each evening people meet at the building to check their answers. The way this works is that in the day time the puzzle is empty. But at night special florescent lights come on, and the answers in the puzzle become visible.

That. Is. Awesome.

Yummy chair

First of all, you have to love a site called chair whore. Because, let's face it, chair whore? How awesome is that? I love it.

Second:



I WANT--no, wait--NEED this chair in my life. So, so gorgeous. Take a gander over on hive's site (their motto should be hello, yummy!) for more kartell ghost chair yumminess. I sear, ever since I've seen this chair, I think I chant that in my sleep.

Yum.

The not so terrible, horrible, very bad logo

One of my favorite children's books is Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. I'm sure you can guess the plot, but to sum it up:

People of all ages have terrible, horrible days, and Alexander offers us the cranky commiseration we crave as well as a reminder that things may not be all that bad. As Alexander's day progresses, he faces a barrage of bummers worthy of a country- western song: getting smushed in the middle seat of the car, a dessertless lunch sack, a cavity at the dentist's office, stripeless sneakers, witnessing kissing on television, and being forced to sleep in railroad-train pajamas. He resolves several times to move to Australia.

Moving to Australia might be extreme, I'd settle for an extended vacation. Especially to Melbourne, just based on their new identity:



I think Armin Vit, of Brand New, hits the nail on the head:

The gradients are subtle and help add a sense of depth and breadth that you would not get with a flat logo, which is clearly evident in the 1-color application where the logo looks like a bad diagram in progress and loses its enigmatic feeling from the color version.

The more I see this logo, the more I like it. I love the gradients, the shapes they create, the left vs. right; all in all, I think it works really well.

So the next time I'm having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (hopefully not too soon!), instead of a move to Australia, I'll be a little more specific and dream of a vacation to Melbourne--if only to admire their identity in person.

Splat no more

In our house, I'm always the one encouraging the children to turn the TV off. Or better yet, don't turn it on. Alas, they are children, after all, and Spongebob beckons. And, quite frankly, sometimes they need the downtime (don't we all?). The channel that gets the most wear in our house is probably Noggin (pre-school Nickelodeon); regular Nickelodeon takes a close second.

So it was with great interest that I read that Nickelodeon has redesigned their logo:



Huh. My initial thoughts are it's very... well, it looks kind of like a lot of other logos out there nowadays. I mean, give it a little reflection, and you've got yourself a pretty little Web 2.0 logo. Right?



I appreciate what Nickelodeon is doing--“The decision to streamline the network identities came after they started putting all of the channels' logos on the same business card—and decided that it looked like a mess,”--but the iconic splat, as well as the many, many, many variations of it, is one of the things that made the Nick logo work, what made it fun, and what made it appealing to kids. And if you're Nickelodeon, isn't that the point?